Murphy's return a big boost

IRELAND’S INJURY list continues to grow at an alarming rate, with Seán O’Brien and Donnacha Ryan the latest casualties, but the silver lining from the weekend was the try-scoring return to action of Leicester Tigers captain Geordan Murphy. The 63 times-capped fullback has been added to Declan Kidneys training squad after proving his recovery from a shoulder operation in the 33-11 defeat of Gloucester on Saturday.

Murphy could be directly promoted to the starting XV to meet England in Twickenham next Saturday, replacing Rob Kearney who will struggle to be fit for the visit of Wales to Croke Park on March 13th. Kidney will announce the team at lunch time tomorrow.

O’Brien fractured his lower leg in the opening stages of Leinster’s 27-14 defeat of the Scarlets at the RDS on Saturday, and will be out for 10 weeks, while it was confirmed that Ryan dislocated his shoulder in Munster’s defeat of Edinburgh last Friday. Both were on the bench in Paris and against Italy.

Ironically, O’Brien made it into the Ireland squad and was capped last November as a replacement for another long-term casualty, Denis Leamy (knee).

“I think it is the fibia,” said Leinster coach Michael Cheika. “It’s not like it has been shattered into bits and pieces so that’s the good part of it. Obviously it is very disappointing for him but let’s not get too doom and gloom yet. Just get him on the road to recovery as quickly as we can and see how it goes. Hopefully he won’t require an operation, but that will be decided early in the week.

“He tried a leg-drive through and someone just slipped down his leg and tried to hold on to him. Freak (accident). He is very disappointed, obviously, from his personal situation, starting to get involved in the national side and also from our team situation.”

Cheika confirmed that Leinster were denied the opportunity by the IRFU to recruit an additional backrow player when Shane Jennings was suspended for 12 weeks last October. They cannot do so now either as the cut off date for Magners League registration was January 30th.

“If there is one position we are light on it is the backrow. We went into this campaign with only five genuine backrows. When Jennings got suspended we tried to get another one, we weren’t allowed and now we are down to four again, hopefully not for the whole season.”

Either Jennings or Kevin McLaughlin, who started against Italy in the absence of Stephen Ferris, are in line for promotion to the Ireland bench. If Donncha O’Callaghan gets the all clear from his knee injury he would also probably make the replacements, with Leinster captain Leo Cullen retaining his position in the secondrow alongside Paul O’Connell.

Connacht hooker Seán Cronin, like last November, should provide cover for the suspended Jerry Flannery, with Ulster captain Rory Best to start after getting valuable game time in the 22-all draw with the Dragons last Friday. Best has made a remarkable recovery from a neck injury sustained last summer. There is still no decision regarding a possible appeal by Flannery to his six-week ban.

Marcus Horan and Shane Horgan are other notable inclusions in the squad, with the latter, particularly, pressing hard for inclusion in the match day squad, although Andrew Trimble currently appears to be ahead of him in the pecking order.

IRELAND(32-man training squad): R Best (Ulster), T Bowe (Ospreys), T Buckley (Munster), T Court (Ulster), S Cronin (Connacht), L Cullen (Leinster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), G Duffy (Connacht), K Earls (Munster), S Ferris (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster), C Henry (Ulster), C Healy (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster), M Horan (Munster), S Horgan (Leinster), D Hurley (Munster), S Jennings (Leinster), K McLaughlin (Leinster), J Murphy (Leicester), G Murphy (Leicester), D O'Callaghan (Munster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), R O'Gara (Munster), T O'Leary (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), J Sexton (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster), D Tuohy (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), P Wallace (Ulster).